1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink set used for fabric printing by an ink jet method, and to an ink jet method using this ink set.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ink sets with 3 or 4 colors, yellow inks, magenta inks, blue inks and, as needed, black inks, are widely used conventionally in cases where full color is formed by ink jet methods, where water-soluble dyes for each color are used as coloring agents. Pigment inks using pigments have been adopted as well in recent years, in addition to water-soluble dyes, from the viewpoint of weatherability and water resistance. Fabrics are also printed by ink jet methods using pigment inks.
However, reproduction of vivid hues is more difficult using pigment inks than using dye inks, and the range of hues that can be rendered is narrower. Thus, active research is being conducted on combinations of pigments as coloring agents that may allow obtaining vivid hues in printed portions by ink jet printing using pigment inks (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-25440 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-181987).
C.I. Pigment Red 122 is widely used as pigment magenta ink, for instance in the pigment ink disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-25440.
However, C.I. Pigment Red 122 has the drawbacks of being expensive, difficult to disperse and possessing a weak coloring power, etc., and especially in fabrics, the surface after printing tends to appear white due to fabric fluff. Moreover, vivid reds cannot be obtained either by attempting to render red using yellow inks and magenta inks comprising this C.I. Pigment Red 122, since the resulting red hue is close to magenta.